Judge orders Soares to pay $29k in legal fees to steroids' pharmacy

Judge makes ruling on legal fees related to court sanction in Florida

Published 9:00 pm, Friday, December 21, 2012

Albany County District Attorney David Soares talks about his reelection campaign, on Tuesday May 15, 2012 in Albany, NY. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union )

Albany County District Attorney David Soares talks about his reelection campaign, on Tuesday May 15, 2012 in Albany, NY. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union )

Photo: Philip Kamrass

Judge orders Soares to pay $29k in legal fees to steroids' pharmacy

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

A federal magistrate in Florida issued an order Friday that directs Albany County District Attorney David Soares to pay $29,731 in legal fees to the operators of a former Orlando pharmacy.

The attorneys for the pharmacy's operators had filed a motion requesting $34,465, which is what they claimed was the cost of challenging Soares over his failure to disclose a letter of admonishment that he received four years ago. Attorneys for Soares had argued the estimated fees were too high.

The admonishment letter was turned over by Soares three months ago as part of discovery in a pending defamation lawsuit filed against Soares by the pharmacy's owners. But the Florida attorneys said the letter should have been turned over at least two years ago.

The defamation lawsuit is on track for trial in Orlando early next year as the pharmacy's operators face criminal trial in Albany. They recently lost their bid to have their felony indictment overturned by New York's Court of Appeals. They are accused of illegally dispensing prescription steroids to Albany County residents in a network that relied on complicit doctors and Internet-driven marketing tactics, law enforcement officials said.

More Information

Soares was sanctioned by the federal magistrate in Florida after he acknowledged shredding the confidential admonishment when he received it. His attorneys said he was not obligated to keep a copy, and they argued it was not required to be turned over under the discovery order in the Florida lawsuit. Soares had been admonished for public comments he made in August 2008 comparing the profits generated by Orlando's Signature Compounding Pharmacy to a drug cartel's.

The pharmacy's owners and former business managers, who are all defendants in the criminal case being prosecuted by Soares' office, accused Soares and his attorneys of filing "bad-faith" legal arguments and of trying to prevent them from obtaining a copy of the disciplinary letter for their defamation lawsuit. They claim Soares' comments damaged their reputations and cost them millions of dollars.

The legal fees include the cost for the Florida attorneys to file motions for the sanction against Soares, and also their cost for flying to Albany to depose Soares about the matter.

The pharmacy's attorneys learned of the 2008 disciplinary letter in May when it was described in a public censure of Soares by a midlevel appellate court. The censure also related to the steroids case — for comments Soares made criticizing Albany County Judge Stephen W. Herrick after Herrick dismissed a fifth indictment against the pharmacy's operators. Herrick's decision was overturned by an appellate court in a decision that was unanimously upheld by New York's Court of Appeals last month.

U.S. Magistrate Thomas B. Smith, who heard arguments on the sanction motion in Orlando, said Soares should have disclosed the disciplinary letter. The judge didn't find that Soares intentionally destroyed evidence or that it would affect the outcome of the defamation lawsuit, but he noted Soares, as an attorney, should have known the letter could be subject to discovery.

The legal feels will be paid by Albany County.

Signature Compounding Pharmacy was raided in February 2007 by a task force led by the Orlando Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation. Law enforcement officials who took part in the raid, including Soares, cast the pharmacy as part of a prescription drug pipeline that illegally funneled steroids and human growth hormone to thousands of customers.